


TLR Snapshot Series - #5

by TreeofStars



Series: The Last Resurrection [7]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Babies, Comfort, F/M, Love, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 01:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15159188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TreeofStars/pseuds/TreeofStars
Summary: Universe: The Last Resurrection (TLR). Takes place after TLR 1 & 2. Stand alone, but you might be lost if you've never read those.Summary: A haunting dream on a stormy night.





	TLR Snapshot Series - #5

Bill woke with a start, taking in his surroundings with wide eyes. His entire body relaxed when he saw Laura sleeping soundly beside him. She was on her side, facing away from him, her long hair covering all of her pillow and a good amount of his. He watched her body rise and fall with each breath, willing his own body to calm down and breathe in the same rhythm.  
  
“You okay?” Her muffled voice made him jump.  
  
“I woke you?”  
  
She rolled over to face him, eyes still half closed from sleep. “You want to talk about it?”  
  
“No. It was nothing.”  
  
“Bill, this is the second time this week. Tell me what’s bothering you.”  
  
He rested his head back on the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “Just dreams, Laura. Nothing more.”  
  
She sighed, moving closer to him and placing a hand on his chest. “It’s new though. You usually sleep so soundly.”  
  
“I’d like to try again,” he hinted.  
  
“Not until you talk to me. If you’re not worried about your own sleep, that’s fine. But you’re interrupting mine now,” she teased.  
  
“You don’t need sleep.”  
  
“That’s irrelevant.”  
  
He responded with silence, eyes fixed on the long wooden beam above their bed. Gently, Laura pushed the issue.  
  
“Was it about me?”  
  
He sighed heavily. “You weren’t in it.”  
  
Laura frowned. “Okay…”  
  
“That’s it. You weren’t here. I looked for you, but it was like you never came back. The sheets were neat on the bed, the books were dusty on the shelves, there was no crib…None of this was real.”  
  
“Oh, but it is real, Bill. You know that.” Her hand began caressing his chest, sliding up and down the uneven skin of his scar.  
  
“I know.”  
  
There were tears forming in his eyes, and Laura knew he was fighting to keep his emotions in check. “Let it go, Bill.”  
  
“I’m not gonna cry over a dream, Laura.”  
  
“It’s not the dream those tears are for.”  
  
He knew she was right. But still, it all seemed so childish. Grown men didn’t cry about such things. He told her so.  
  
She tried a different tactic. “What do you think brought this on all of a sudden?”  
  
“I have no idea.”  
  
“I think I do.”  
  
“Oh really?”  
  
“You never really talked about it, Bill. What you went through. Losing me. Burying me. We always focused on my issues, and then Ella came along… I can’t imagine what that was like for you.”  
  
“I’m not gonna talk about that with you.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“It’s your death, Laura. Don’t you think that’s a little much for you to know about?”  
  
“No, actually I don’t. I want to know.”  
  
“No you don’t.”  
  
“Yes, I do. Call it a morbid curiosity. I just never wanted to force the issue.”  
  
“You really want to know what it was like to dig a hole and bury your body? How cold you were? How I had to clean you before placing you in the ground?”  
  
Her voice was soft, but sure. “Yes, but not if it pains you to tell me.”  
  
He turned on his side to face her, the first eye contact they’d had since waking. “You can’t erase it from your mind. It’ll stay with you forever.”  
“But it’s already staying with you, and it’s hurting you. Let it go, Bill.”  
  
Bill sighed, reaching down and taking hold of her hand. “I felt for a pulse, although I knew I wouldn’t find one.” He felt for it now, the beat strong and steady under his thumb. “I’d been somewhat prepared for it, but I had no idea how lost I would feel. I didn’t know what to do. We were going to find a nice little place for our home, and then you were gone. I was looking at your face, suddenly so peaceful, and saw this patch of land out the window. I knew wherever I buried you was where I would stay. It would be my home. Just as I was home for you.  
“After I set down, it took me ages to decide if I should leave you in the raptor while I dug the grave, or take you out with me. But I didn’t like the idea of laying you on the ground, so I tucked the blanket around you and set out to find the best place for you. It gets plenty of sun in the spot I chose, which I thought you might like after the cold of space.”  
  
Laura snuggled as close to him as possible as he spoke, running her hand through his hair. She wanted to tell him she liked the spot he’d chosen, but felt that interrupting him was a bad idea. Instead she listened, her hands caressing him as he described carrying her out of the raptor, cleaning and redressing her body, and wrapping her scarf around her head. Hearing about the mystery of her death wasn’t as upsetting or even as interesting as she thought it might be. It was only how it pertained to the man she loved that she felt she wanted to hear more.  He was describing placing the rocks on her grave when the rain began to fall outside their window. It added to the intimacy of the moment, and she cuddled closer to him.  
  
“Laura?”  
  
“Hmmm?” She nuzzled his neck.  
  
“Does it bother you?”  
  
“Does what bother me?”  
  
“Having your grave out there in the front of our house.”  
  
Laura pulled away from him slightly, considering his question. In truth, she hadn’t thought much about it as of late. “Does it bother  _you_?”  
  
He frowned, choosing his words carefully. “Sometimes, yes.”  
  
“What would you like to do about it?”  
  
“I don’t know what you mean.”  
  
She rose up on her arm, propping her head on her hand. “Shall we…dismantle it?”  
  
“You mean, take everything away so it’s just a barren spot?”  
  
“Everything above ground, yes.”  
  
Bill shook his head. “No. It’ll never be a barren spot for me, Laura. I’ll always think of it when I look at it, marker or no marker.”  
  
“Okay, so we leave it as is.”  
  
“If that’s what you want.”  
  
She sighed. “I know I should feel something one way or the other, but I guess it’s not something I think about much these days.”  
  
“Ella will be curious when she’s older.”  
  
“Yes, and we will tell her exactly what it is when she is old enough to understand.”  
  
Bill nodded, shifting closer to his wife. His lips captured hers just as thunder clapped outside. The lightning that followed was punctuated by Ella’s shriek from inside her crib.  
  
Laura groaned, releasing her husband. “Hold that thought.”  
  
“Yeah. Until next week, if I’m lucky.”  
  
She tossed him a dirty look over her shoulder as she got out of bed and made her way over to the crib. Ella’s shriek had progressed to a full blown wail, her hands balled into tight red fists.  
  
“Oh my goodness, did that thunder scare you?” Laura scooped up the baby, kissing her face. “Let’s go cuddle with Daddy, hmmm?”  
  
“I think this is her first thunder storm,” Bill said, as Laura placed Ella on the bed beside him.  
  
“Yeah, and it’s not a big hit.” She climbed under the sheets, making sure they covered the baby as well.  
  
Surrounded by her parents, Ella’s wailing subsided to a whimper, her lower lip quivering for added emphasis.  
  
“I wish you could tell her that it’s just rain,” Bill said, kissing his daughter.  
  
Laura smiled at the memory of Ella in her belly, transfixed by the rain beating down around her. “That would come in handy,” she admitted.  
She watched as the tips of his fingers made tiny circles on the baby’s stomach, the ministrations calming her until another clap of thunder sounded. Her little body jumped in response, and the tears began again in earnest.  
  
“No, no, little one,” Bill whispered, pulling her closer. “Daddy’s right here.”  
  
Laura snuggled deeper under the covers. “Tell her a story, Bill.”  
  
“Do you want to hear a story, little one? I know a good one, about an Admiral and a President. Do you want to hear that? The Admiral had a big, big ship, and many men under his command. The President was just a schoolteacher when they met-“  
  
Laura snorted, but Bill did not falter in his tale, keeping his voice steady and calm, and before long, Ella had fallen asleep, her tiny hand curled around her father’s finger.  
  
They both held their breath when the thunder clapped again, but Ella did not stir.  
  
“See that? Daddy’s stories work like a charm,” Bill whispered.  
  
“That was a fairy tale, Bill.”  
  
“Shhh. She liked it.”  
  
“That’s because she doesn’t know any better.”  
  
“You want me to tell you a story now?”  
  
Laura hummed in affirmation, her eyes closed. “How about the one where Mommy and Daddy manage more than five minutes of alone time?”

  
Bill gave a soft laugh in reply, his thumb caressing Ella’s hand. “Now  _that’s_  a fairy tale.”


End file.
